PROBLEMS FROM DEVELOPMENT 51 



comes more and more dependent upon rinding ways of put- 

 ting water into it. There is ample water available at some 

 seasons in the White River and other streams, and an im- 

 portant question for research is whether large-scale recharge 

 (probably through wells) is feasible, and, if so, whether ma- 

 nipulation of storage in the ground-water reservoir would 

 be more economical than the construction of a reservoir on 

 the White River or another stream, and diversion to the rice 

 lands by canals. 



The reservoirs that are being emptied pose real problems 

 for their users. It is certain that as the storage is depleted and 

 finally exhausted, the draft will necessarily be reduced to the 

 amount of annual recharge, and the water users must then 

 pump that water practically from the bottom of the reservoir. 

 Particularly in the case of reservoirs with negligible recharge, 

 those who have been relying on wells must abandon ground 

 water as their source of supply and look elsewhere. The alter- 

 native to this disastrous future is to attempt to bring the draft 

 and replenishment into balance. Corrective measures that have 

 been applied are discussed subsequently. 



THE COMPLICATION OF INTRODUCING UNUSABLE WATER. The 



drawing in of unusable water is generally a more serious prob- 

 lem than the "mining" that eventually results in emptying a 

 ground-water reservoir. It may necessitate abandoning wells 

 while there is still plenty of water in the reservoir, owing to 

 impurities that make it unfit for use. Furthermore, an emptied 

 reservoir may fill again by natural processes if left alone; but 

 dissolved chemical matter is difficult to remove, as the woman 

 in our childhood reader found when she accidentally put a 

 spoonful of salt in her coffee. 



In several California valleys open to the ocean, pumping 

 from storage has progressed to the point where the water table 

 or piezometric surface is now below sea level at the coast. Un- 

 less there is an impermeable barrier to prevent it, the ocean 

 water can move into the ground-water reservoirs of those 

 coastal valleys. Intrusion of saline water into reservoirs once 



